How should one comfort a tragedy?
Just as I had heard countless times while on a sickbed, I could probably offer words of comfort. If I mixed in experience and knowledge, words that sounded plausible would come out.
But in the face of a long tragedy, comfort was not a special event.
To the one giving comfort, it might be a special moment, but to the one hearing it, it was only a common procedure of mental labor, where they had to respond kindly to another person's good heart.
I'm not saying the sentiment isn't appreciated. I'm saying that doesn't stop it from being mental labor.
I didn't want to make an already exhausted girl even more tired.
Judging by how she had let the adult elves' consolation pass through her, she didn't seem to want comfort either.
Rather......
What if I became the shade of a tree where she could rest before leaving?
That was why I had become a tree instead of a flower.
The elf girl who approached looked up blankly, as if fascinated. Her mouth fell open. She circled me and looked around, then belatedly looked back at the droplet girl.
"You......"
At her cracked voice, the elf girl coughed dryly. After waking her hoarse throat, she opened her mouth again.
"Do you live here?"
The droplet hesitated, then looked at me.
Smooth communication is difficult from the start, is it? I understand. I'll talk in your place.
I carefully filled the surrounding space with will.
—Our droplet can't speak. If you want a conversation, you can talk to me. The sapling here.
The elf girl flinched.
Her head whipped around, and her gaze came straight to me. Her blue eyes trembled.
"A-a-are you a tree......?"
The question was a little funny, so I didn't know how to answer.
—I'm just a mysterious sapling. Think of me comfortably.
The elf girl stared blankly.
She stayed that way for a while, then looked around quickly.
Sunlight shone on the wide grassland. Fruits wet with dawn dew glowed softly. Wind blew and shook my lone green leaves.
"Is this the afterlife?"
—Why do you think that?
I don't think the scenery looks gloomy. Rather, compared to the forest, it's extremely bright.
"I followed an unfamiliar existence to an unknown territory. And now I am speaking with an enormous tree I have never heard of."
The girl rubbed her arms. She continued speaking calmly.
"Didn't I die in my sleep? And you're the god of this place."
So she had thought she was dead all this time.
Did she think following the droplet's lead was an invitation to the road to the afterlife?
—People don't die just because they cry themselves to sleep. If you believe this place is the afterlife, then it may be the afterlife to you, but this is only the back side of your secret base.
And you're simply in the mental state of someone who just woke up.
The girl didn't seem convinced.
"Even though an enormous tree is speaking?"
That's certainly unrealistic, but......
—I'm just a sapling from the local hill.
The elf girl went blank.
Her gaze rose. It traveled up my trunk, reached my branches, and headed for the top. Then, perhaps finding it hard to take me in at once, she backed away and examined me.
This time, her gaze touched the other trees.
After checking several of them, she finally looked back at me.
"Just a sapling from the local hill?"
Now that I heard it, it did lack persuasive power.
I think I expressed that poorly.
Still, it was the honest truth.
—I'm just a sapling from the local hill.
The elf girl went blank again.
After I waited for a while, focus returned to her eyes.
—Have you sorted out your thoughts?
"......No."
It'd be strange if she had.
—Then how about lying down comfortably for now? You slept outside. Aren't you cold? If you lie in the grass and bask in the sun, you'll warm up quickly.
Only then did the girl seem to feel the cold, because she rubbed her arms. She hesitated, but when the droplet removed the dawn dew for her, she lay down awkwardly.
Her golden hair covered the grassland. Her blue eyes looked up at the equally blue sky. Clouds formed in her eyes.
She seemed to have many thoughts. I think I'd have to wait quite a while for her to sort them out.
Shall I do the dew face-wash I couldn't do because I was watching her?
I chose clean dew that I liked. I moved my leaves and slowly rolled the dew. Other drops of dew were swallowed, and the surface of my leaves became clean.
"My name is Termia."
When I checked, the girl was still looking up at the sky.
"Mom called me Teri, but I don't like that nickname very much. Teri sounds like I'll be a child forever. I don't know how long she was planning to see me as a child."
After thinking for a moment, I continued the dew face-wash. The enlarged dew crossed along a branch to the next leaf.
"That's why I liked Dad. He called me Termia. And when I couldn't sleep, he told me hunting stories too. Even when Mom scolded him for teaching me unnecessary things. I can still clearly feel us shushing together because it was our secret."
Dew rolled over the leaves.
The girl said nothing for a while.
"You wouldn't know because you're here, Lord Tree, but many people say elves spread disease. Most people don't believe it, but it isn't completely baseless. All elves are short-lived."
I moved the dew to a new leaf.
"We are younger than humans and grow more slowly, but before we can truly grow old, we fall ill and die. There is a lot of individual variation, though. From a human perspective, it's uncomfortable to be together with us, so we live in cabins in the forest on the outskirts and survive by hunting. It's our traditional role. There are also reasons like how, if we don't supply meat to human villages, it is easy to be driven out for all sorts of reasons."
The girl was silent again for a while.
"The day Dad, who had been walking with me, was struck by an arrow a human shot wrong, and the day Mom was late because she was begging an apothecary who understood the situation and still held out."
Termia's arm covered her eyes.
"......I hate Mom. She only ever scolded Dad when he tried to teach me archery, but then she tried to teach me after all this time. If she had only brought the medicine on time, Dad wouldn't have died, and we wouldn't have had to flee with such difficulty to this village."
Her breathing grew uneven.
"Because we were short on hands, she started teaching me after all this time, and then when I got angry, she gave up so quickly and left me alone. I hated that. I hated it so much."
Her voice trembled.
"Even though I knew she hadn't taught me until now because she wanted me to live comfortably when I was fated to die young. Even though I knew she was trying to teach me because we no longer had that leisure. Even though I knew Dad's death wasn't Mom's fault, I still got angry, and I hated, hated myself for that."
Moisture formed in her voice.
"It was too late to reconcile, and I was too sorry to apologize, so even now, a gift, a gift......"
The sound of crying came.
Grass blades wrapped around the girl.
Sunlight covered the world.
***
Termia looked at the leaf offered to her.
"Is it really all right to blow my nose on Lord Tree's leaf?"
—I'm just a sapling from the local hill. Don't think of it too gravely.
Termia hesitated, then plucked weeds at her feet and blew her nose. She plucked a few more to wipe her tears, then squeezed her eyes shut and opened them.
"I feel roughly relieved. There's nothing I can do anyway."
Both hands rubbed her cheeks.
"For now, it seems this really isn't the afterlife."
You were still doubting that?
"And I haven't lost my mind either."
You doubted it that much?
It was a reasonable doubt, but too reasonable. I wish she'd just accept me as a suitably mysterious sapling.
Termia approached and sat leaning against me.
Her blank gaze admired the scenery.
Wind shook the landscape.
Trees swayed, grass blades fluttered, and clouds flowed by.
"Is there nothing you're curious about?"
The girl hesitated.
"I feel like I only talked about myself."
I gathered my words for a moment.
—When you return to the village, everyone you meet will ask you questions. Half of them will comfort you, and half of them will offer help.
Until the tragedy becomes the past.
—If you want, I will ask you questions.
The girl pulled up her knees and rested her chin on them.
Her unfocused gaze watched the grassland.
"Actually, I already said everything I wanted to say, so I don't really want to be questioned."
—Then that's enough.
We spent time without conversation.
Warm sunlight made the heart drowsy.
Termia muttered.
"Ah, I'm hungry."
She probably hadn't eaten since yesterday.
The droplet girl, who had been hiding among the branches and watching, fluttered away. She picked fruit, returned, and placed it at the girl's feet.
Termia tilted her head.
"Are you telling me to eat this?"
The droplet girl flinched, then carefully nodded.
I thought its shyness had disappeared, but maybe not. It seemed that having its fruit ignored had been shocking after all.
I should help a little.
—Our droplet is very kind. It picks up interesting things from around here because I might be curious, and if I ask, it'll even do anything for me.
And the highlight.
—Moreover, the one who helped your practice by removing the stone floor at the practice grounds was our droplet. It even drove prey from behind when you were hunting. Its heart is that good.
The droplet girl twisted her body in embarrassment.
Termia stared blankly.
"So those weren't done by the village chief."
Waaah? You mistook them for the village chief's kindness?
"I thought it was suspicious. The stone was truly suspicious, and while hunting, the intervals where I encountered wild animals suddenly grew shorter, which felt artificial. I accepted it gratefully because I was in no position to refuse, though."
The mysterious droplet's help had simply become the village chief's help.
The reaction of "to think such a mysterious droplet exists" had become "oh, so it wasn't the village chief"......
Her gaze met the droplet's.
"Thank you."
Termia smiled faintly.
"Thanks to you, I wasn't too late at the very end."
The droplet giggled. Both arms waved happily, and fruit was handed over.
Termia accepted and ate it. Her lips chewed. A savoring sound came.
"I know this fruit, but it tastes much better than usual."
Because you're eating while crying.
Fruit went into her mouth one after another.
"Was this place originally a flower field?"
—It was originally a yellow flower field. When the wind blew, they all danced together, and when rain fell, they all shook their petals together.
"It must have been spectacular."
—Yes. When I was a sprout, I watched them with longing. Enough that I considered becoming a flower instead of a tree. Even now, I think it'd have been nice if I had become a flower.
Though then I couldn't have become shade for a tree.
"That much? Do they bloom every year?"
Do they?
—I don't know whether they bloom every year. I'm a sapling less than one year old. Much younger than you.
Termia chewed the fruit for a moment. Thinking alone, she blinked rapidly.
Her gaze turned to me. It slowly swept me from bottom to top.
Then she gave a light laugh.
"Lord Tree has stubbornness too."
Yes, you don't believe me. You think I tried a boring joke.
I feel like I've become an old tree that lived for decades and lost all sense of humor.
Suddenly, the hand reaching for fruit trembled.
"Urgh?"
Termia hurriedly covered her mouth. Drops of blood scattered with a light cough. Her blank gaze looked at the blood on her palm.
"......Did I overdo it?"
Termia, her hand trembling, glanced around.
"This is my first time experiencing it, but it's not a big deal."
A cough mixed with blood followed.
"Elven lifespans have large individual differences. I was told my case is on the extreme side, so it'd start getting dangerous soon."
Termia calmly breathed out.
"I must have pushed myself too hard, and my body couldn't endure it. I should go back and rest."
—I see. Understood. If it's your first time, ask another adult for advice.
"Yes."
The girl wiped her mouth. She looked at the red blood for a while, then pressed a hand to the ground and slowly rose.
Then she staggered and fainted.
Her body collapsed onto the grassland. Drops of blood wet the grass blades.
Mm......
Seems it's a big deal after all.